HISTORY OF AMERICA- HIST 101

History of Malcolm X  – American Experience

Malcolm X presented himself in the film as the most influential articulator of the blacks people in American a time they were labelled because of skin colour. He was very vocal to mention the cries of these he felt were voiceless, despised and disdained and despised because of the colour of the skin. I noted in most events in the film Malcolm X sounded bitter the way the whites treated the blacks and thus demanded racial justice. Malcolm’s race critique motivated many African Americans, and I saw in the film he joined the Black Power Movement to fight for the rights of the blacks. He believed that America does not have any problems, but the big problem was its people, the Americans. He felt some leaders are unintellectual and lack mature political consciousness.

The interesting thing was Malcolm X lacked formal education, but his thoughts were classic and intellectual. I heard him mentioning that his dream was to become a lawyer, one of unrealistic career for any black “nigger.” Despite not undergoing much education, Malcolm sounded like a preacher, social and political philosopher. He kept reminding us the blacks in America suffered from a triad of social misery, political oppression, namely, social degradation and economic exploitation. All at the hands, the white supremacy. He advised the blacks that they cannot achieve progress for social justice unless the debilitating self-hatred on them was confronted with no fear. He used his speech to reveal a number of incidents such as where racism and discrimination had prevailed over human decency. I saw him as strong civil rights activists who never afraid to mention what he felt to say.

Apart from a civil right activist, Malcolm X appeared as a preacher and a prominent minister in the Nation of Islam. A religious movement that he consciously believed its originality was from black religion. Malcolm was against Christianity because he argued that it was a white slave master religion. He started been anti-Christian while still in prison, and his favourite targets were the teachings of the Bible and God. Through his speeches, Malcolm proved himself as an intelligent man who possessed strong qualities of leadership, charisma, and creativity. He became an ambassador of Black Muslim because of his philosophical ideas of the Nation of Islam and what he thought about the Muslim religion. To him, Islam was a special religion to African Americans because it does not mix with politics, and it encourages unity.

I think Malcolm X will be remembered mostly for his philosophical ideas and his fiery condemnation of the white supremacy and repression against African-Americans. He fought all kind of institutionalized forms of racism in America. Malcolm did not like the ways the blacks saw themselves inferior beings through the eyes of the white race. He rejected the white cultural-political ethos and religion with a passion. As a nationalist, he kept reminding Americans that the voting process was not the solution for the problems of America but believed that if leaders would treat citizens more humanely, America would the best place to live. Overall, Malcolm X wanted to transform the black life so that they can achieve identity, rights and freedom and political equality for themselves. He was assassinated on February 21, 1965.

References